


Hands & Feet

by Toffle



Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: F/M, Gen, Unamed OC Daughter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-04
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-12 23:36:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4499085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toffle/pseuds/Toffle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The revelation does not come in ice, or fire. It comes only with a gentle touch.</p><p>A brief look in to the manifestation of their daughters magic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hands & Feet

The revelation does not come in ice, or fire. There is no accident that startles, nor outburst of emotion that calls it forward. It comes only with a gentle touch.  
  
The door of their small home flies open, and smaller feet dart across the floor, hands tugging at their mothers arm as she deposits bread and meat on to the table.  
  
No longer a red smear gracing her face, her hair hangs longer about her chin, and her staff has been shut firmly in a cupboard, hidden amongst brooms and mops. Out of sight. Out of mind.  
  
Hawke has made herself a home -for as long as it will last- and it reminds her distantly of a time long ago, when she too had kicked the door open with abandon, noise filling her mothers kitchen, as her siblings bickered behind over who would help set the table first.  
  
The tugging at her arm relents, and she watches her own child, now almost as tall as her hip, dip in to the brown sack to bring an apple to her mouth. Hawke’s scolding is gentle, and not without an amused pull at her lips.  
  
‘If you’re so starved that you cannot bear the agonising wait for a cooked meal,’ she begins, brushing back her daughters hair. ‘Then perhaps you should summon your father to the table immediately.’  
  
She plucks the apple from the child's hand, their grin wide enough to match her own, and watches as short legs race off into a room just out of sight, bare feet hitting the floor with soft smacks. A nuance picked up from her father no doubt. Hawke vaguely wonders where the young girls shoes actually are.

The heavy footsteps slow, the young girl realises that sneaking would suit her better. She can see her fathers white hair over the top of the small arm chair, and she knows his attention is buried into a new book.  
  
At least, she’s sure she knows.   
  
Despite her stealth, unmatched by any tall adult in this house, she is startled when the flat side of the book drops lightly on to her head. Looking up from under it her own green eyes meet the entertained gaze of her fathers, and she pouts.  
  
‘No fair. You’re cheating papa.’   
  
‘Kicking the door open was quite the give away. I wouldn’t call it cheating.’  
  
‘Oh...’ she pouts further still, and looks off the side as the book is placed back onto the worn shelf. When her stomach rumbles she remembers the reason behind her daring sneak attack. ‘Mama wants you in the kitchen, and you ought to follow me.’  
  
Ah, he thinks, the influence of her mother. ‘Ought to?  
  
‘Yes papa. Immediately. We are starving and...and look even Sitka has wasted away to nothing.’ She gestures with far too much of a sweep in her arm to the greying Mabari asleep in the corner. Too old now for the war dog it once was.   
  
‘As you wish,’ Fenris replies, an amused hum in his voice as he holds out his hand for her to take. She would squeak something silly if he dared to pick her up. So grown up now was she, all of six, and tall enough to fend off even the bravest of intruders in their home, so she claimed.  
  
He had watched her not five hours ago shriek at the spider the had crawled across her leg. At least it was a small one.   
  
‘Would you care to lead the wa-’   
  
As her small hand clasps his, the words die on his lips. Her small gasp fills the silence he leaves behind.   
  
It had been some time since a foreign magic had touched his skin not fed by battle, and whilst unprepared for it, he does not flinch away. To do so would only slight his daughter, and he would not put such burden on her. The light of lyrium fades around their hands, and the stunned circle of his daughters mouth slowly shuts.  
  
‘I-I’m sorry...’  
  
‘You have nothing to apologise for.’  
  
The shock in her voice would not do. The complaints of her young pride would have to be damned, as he picks her up from where she stands -rooted and unsure- and carries her to the kitchen.   
  
Lyrium flares up at points of contact until he smothers them down, and he presents his daughter to her mother, setting her atop the table, out of the way of the food being prepared.  
  
A sudden fear for her future creeps down his spine. He looks to Hawke, waiting.  
  
‘Well... we certainly didn’t have the best odds in our favour,’ she offers.   
  
Then she laughs, reaching out a hand to her daughter cheek. All of six, and eyes suddenly so full of worry. Turning her gaze away from her fathers arm, she smooths back the hair from her daughters face and smiles.  
  
‘You have nothing to fear my sweet, but a lot to learn, and we will be with you for all of it.’  
  
With her fathers arms steady around her back, and her mothers kiss to her head, she nods. She sits up straighter, and puffs out her chest, and wrings her hands about her shirt finding her words. She looks up at her father, so full of concern.   
  
‘You’re not... angry?’   
  
He cannot deny that it hurts to see the child he raised concerned not for herself, but for him, because they know his opinions, though never his experience. Hawke watches him, not with apprehension, but with warmth.  
  
‘I worry, as is my right as your father,’ he takes her hand and turns it over, so small against his own. Marked with paper cuts and the grazes only a child could achieve before Hawke could take her healing hand at them.   
  
One day they would cast fire, or ice. Perhaps one day she would set a chair to flame as Hawke once did to her father before her, or perhaps worse. What ever the case, he would not leave her side. She was young, and they would guide her, together.   
  
‘I am not angry,’ he squeezes her hand, and kisses the top of her head, and her nervous tension deflates.   
  
‘I’ll work hard,’ she promises, not so sure what that truly means. She is so young, and there is much ahead. ‘I’ll be just like mama.’  
  
Hawke does not miss the catch in his throat, the awkward cough, and the plea to Andraste. She laughs, and it is loud, and hearty, and warm.   
  
‘I can’t begin to image what you are implying Fenris.’  
  
‘I believe you are well aware.’  
  
‘I’ll take it as a compliment,’ she snickers, and swoops her daughter off of the table and into her arms. ‘Right, with that happy surprise my dear, what say you and I, and your father, make a start on that dinner I mentioned? Are you still hungry?’  
  
‘Yes mama.’  
  
‘Good, and... is that mud on your hands? Where- we were outside for ten minutes.’  
  
Now her father laughs, it too is warm, and deep. Her hands are cleaned, and food prepared. Her mother cannot help but think, should this peace be short lived, that she will move the earth beneath her feet to protect it and her family.   
  
Together they have made a home, and though it is small, and out of sight, it is everything that Hawke is proud of.

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn’t around for fenhawke week, I caught the last two days of it. So perhaps consider it a belated contribution. Written because I have read waaayyy too many family stories where they have a child.
> 
> There's no canon age for the manifestation of magic in a person, only that it's somewhere in childhood and for some, their early teens. It's never specified how they know either. Feynriel had nightmares, Wynne set a child on fire by accident (though I'm not sure if she knew she had magic before that?). 
> 
> I thought since Fenris reacts to magic. He's so used to Hawke and her touches at this point, he's grown used to it. But magic slowly manifesting in his child wouldn't be something instantly noticed because it's a development, not a sudden arrival.


End file.
